Katz
Katz is the main antagonist in the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog. He is a red anthropomorphic cat who is Courage's arch-nemesis. He was voiced by Paul Schoeffler. Biography A Night at the Katz Motel Katz makes his first appearance in the first episode of season 1, A Night at the Katz Motel. When Eustace, Muriel and Courage are returning home from their vacation they stumble upon the Katz Motel and go inside to stay for the night. Then they meet Katz at the counter. He asks them to sign their names on a sheet of paper but then stops after seeing Courage. He points to a sign which reads No Dogs Allowed. Distraught, Courage is taken outside to stay. As Eustace and Muriel settle themselves in, Katz opens the door behind him, revealing a giant web housing large spiders. He tells them that their dinner has arrived, as he was referring to the humans and Courage. He then walks away after telling the spiders to clean their web, due to how filthy it is. Katz watches over Eustace as he is sleeping and watches Muriel from the tap as she's bathing. He then lets out a spider into the bathtub to eat her. Meanwhile, Courage is sitting outside mopingly until he catches a glimpse of Katz' shadow. Katz' arms reach out from behind a corner and he places down a small wooden box and opens up the lid, thus letting out a spider to eat Courage. Luckily, Courage escapes and is safe, but not until he finds Eustace tied up in a web about to be eaten by a giant spider. Katz closes the door behind Courage asking "Leaving so soon?". Courage then picks up Eustace and throws his body at Katz knocking him down, with Katz uttering "I wish you hadn't done that".Courage runs out of the room being chased by Katz. After rescuing Muriel from the spider, Courage runs into another room to escape from Katz, but Katz corners him. Trapped and having nowhere else to go, Courage expects Katz to kill him straightaway, but instead Katz offers him a quick ball game before he kills Courage. While playing, Katz reads a book about spiders and drinks a cup of tea. After beating Courage, Katz grabs his neck saying "Now you'll know why no one ever checks out of Katz Motel", and raises up a spider which he prepares to kill Courage with, while at the same time laughing maniacally. However just before Katz kills him, Muriel whacks him over the head with a tennis racket, knocking the feline straight out and falling on the floor. Klub Katz His next appearance was in Klub Katz. This time, we see Katz running the exclusive Klub Katz on an island, where Eustace, Muriel, and Courage are washed ashore after a luxury cruise goes awry. He takes Muriel and Eustace to the spa, which of course has "No Dogs Allowed." When Courage sees Katz come out with his owners, Muriel and Eustace have been transformed into a washing machine and a wrecking ball, respectively matching their personalities - Eustace is always grumpy, arrogant, and destructive, while Muriel does a lot of work. Katz pits them both against each other in an abandoned coliseum where he runs a machine for applause while he watches from Eustace's chair (which he salvaged from the shipwreck). Courage goes into the spa to turn himself into a helicopter and rescues Muriel (with the help of a magnet) from the coliseum. Eustace, noticing Katz has his chair, takes a whack at the feline, only to destroy his chair when Katz dodges. He continues to chase Katz around trying to hit him, while Katz tries to suggest therapy and reason in vain. The episode is a spoof of The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which a sinister vivisectionist turns humans into half-animal creatures. Katz Kandy The third time one sees Katz is Katz Kandy. It is in this episode that Katz is shown to have his own candy store, Katz Kandy. The 43rd Annual Nowhere Sweet Stuff Contest is coming up, and he has won second place every year to Muriel, a fact that saddens and frustrates him. He whips up a jam monster to kidnap Muriel so he can get her to tell him her secret ingredient. Courage comes along for the ride, of course, with Eustace not far behind following (and eating) a jam trail left by the monster. While inside Katz's lair, Muriel refuses to willingly give him the secret to her recipes. He puts her on a candy cane over a taffy pulling machine and binds Courage with other taffy. Katz threatens Muriel to tell him her secret or he will pull the lever, which will lower her into the machine, which will pull her into a taffy. Courage manages to eat his way out of his binds and fight with Katz while back in the candy store, Eustace is beating the jam monster. Katz gets the upper hand in their bought though, and challenges Courage to a staring match when it becomes too easy for him to win. Courage holds up even with Katz egging him on to blink until Eustace enters the lair, effectively startling Courage enough to make him blink. Katz tosses Courage into a different machine that makes Courage into a candy cube. Katz goes back to the candy canes where now both Eustace and Muriel are, and fights Eustace while hanging onto the candy cane trying to use his legs to pull Eustace down into the taffy machine (and vice versa). Courage rolls to the lever and the candy cane Katz is on goes down into the machine, and Katz is pulled among the green taffy, still asking for the secret ingredient. Before they leave, Muriel tells him that if he must know, it's vinegar. Katz 'cheers' that it's vinegar. He makes it to the Sweet Stuff Contest, but he loses first place to Muriel yet again, and this time, he's his own entry, for he is shown as a green piece of taffy shaped akin to a hotdog wiener. Katz Under the Sea It seems Katz found a way to return himself back to normal by the time he is seen in Katz Under the Sea. In this scam, he is the captain of the SUB Standard Cruise submarine, the vacation submarine for those who feel overworked. Muriel, who is being overworked by Eustace, takes Courage there in need of a break. After appointing Muriel as his first mate for making tea, Katz says "No Dogs Allowed" and tosses Courage to the side (Courage, of course, stows away in another passenger's luggage). Courage masquerades as a ventriloquist doll, which fools Katz for enough time for Courage to figure out that Katz is planning to have the submarine blow up once they reach the bottom of the sea. Katz mistakes Muriel's complaints about the smell of the explosive 'Tea-N-Tea' for confirmation that she is a spy sent out to thwart his plans for blowing up the sub. He reveals that he plans to swim to safety while he ruins SUB Standards Inc.'s cruise so that his own Katz Submarine Cruise will get all the underwater vacation business. So once again, he is crushing his competition. Unable to find help, Courage tries to stop Katz, who is about to make his getaway, himself. Katz realizes he's a dog, and during their tumble, Courage breaks the lever that sets the course of the submarine on a collision course with the sea floor, much to Katz's joy. Katz escapes into the ocean, but then finds himself swallowed by a shark. While Courage manages to save everyone, Katz is left in the belly of the shark demanding not to be eaten. Ball of Revenge Katz apparently managed to get out of the shark no worse for wear, as he last appears in Ball of Revenge, along with all of the other villains whose various plans were foiled by Courage. Called to the farmhouse basement for a secret meeting by Eustace (who is jealous of Courage), he and the other villains make a plan with Eustace to get rid of Courage for good and have their revenge. Once they capture Muriel, she resists screaming (which is the bait to get Courage to come to her rescue). Katz begins his own brand of torture for her, by mixing the whites and colors in the washing machine and adding a ton of bleach as well. This effectively makes her scream, and Courage does race downstairs where he is jumped by the villains. Katz suggests a bit of sport before he slowly dies, which Courage is forced to accept. The game: Dodge ball. It's the villains against Courage, with Muriel and Eustace as spectators and Le Quack as the referee in Courage's last big showdown with his enemies. Katz throws a ball with spikes at Courage, who evades getting hurt by it. Katz is then shocked and disgusted by the unrefined weremole, who eats his dodge ball. During the game, Katz helps his teammates, and pulls out a flame thrower when Courage is on his last legs and is about to lose. Muriel encourages Courage that there must be something he is good at, which gets him thinking. Then, sucking in much air, Courage does the thing Katz and all his foes have helped him perfect the entire series: SCREAM. Courage screams so loud that the ground shakes, and Katz, along with all his teammates, fall into a hole created by the chasms of shaking ground that the scream made, except for Le Quack, who vanished after the half time show. It remains unknown if Katz and the other villains survived since they never return after the final battle. Role He always cons Muriel and Eustace as he did with most other people into trying whatever service he is providing, but Courage never falls for his schemes. All of his businesses enforce a strict "No Dogs Allowed" policy, forcing Courage to sneak in. His catchphrase (typically uttered whenever he gets injured) is "I wish you hadn't done that". Whenever he is ready to kill Courage, he enjoys "a little sport before dying." The following "sports before dying" he has done are: Staring Contest Most likely one of the most known things about him, he sits in a classic feline pose, and just waits for Courage to blink, he knows he will win, so he only does this because he likes seeing Courage suffer, after Courage gives up, he will without hesitation try to kill Courage, even if the contest was interrupted, Katz will still win. Ball Game This one is pretty simple, Katz will grab a heavy and spiky ball, and throw at Courage until he can't take it anymore and simply gives up. At times, the ball isn't even spiky or heavy, but just a simple ball. Personality The main humor and characteristic of Katz is that he is the very opposite of Courage, while Courage is pure good, Katz is pure evil. But even though he is pure evil, he is still civilized and well-mannered because he called The Weremole an "unrefined beast". Appearance Katz is a red anthropomorphic cat, with purple dots around his body and on his nose, with very very bright yellow eyes. He is slender and has a long tail, a interesting thing about him is his eyebrows, which for the most part he doesn't have, but at times they just appear out of nowhere, for example in A Night at the Katz Motel, he suddenly has eyebrows. He has different clothes for each time he wants to con someone, matching the temporary businesses he specializes in in that episode. Interestingly enough, in Katz Kandy he doesn't have a special disguise. Powers and Skills * Intelligence: Katz is extremely intelligent, he is very good at scamming oblivious people, as seen when he constantly scams Muriel and Eustace, and it's the main trait he is good at. Courage is portrayed as very stupid and dumb, whether Courage really is stupid or the cartoon is just making the viewers think this is debatable. * Manipulation: Same thing as the intelligence, he is very good at getting people to do what he wants, and as also mentioned before, he often cons Muriel and Eustace, but even Courage, he nearly turned Courage into a cylinder-formed candy, and almost killed both Muriel and Courage in Katz Under the Sea. * Survival Skills: Even though often getting what he deserves in the end of each episode, he somehow always manages to get out and escape death, it is unknown why he always survives, but it most likely has to do with him being very good at tricking and being a con artist. * Business Knowledge: Mixing his intelligence and manipulation skills, and you got this, he is brilliant at getting people to his resorts and other businesses only to use them and get money. * Sadism and Torture Methods: He has many torturing skills upon his sleeves, in Ball of Revenge, the last episode he is in, he is seen throwing spike balls at Courage and loves seeing him scream in pain, also in every episode he is in he enjoys "A little sport before slow dying", which is to make Courage feel even more pain. Overall, his personality can be summed up with that he is very sadistic and intelligent, and shows a good opposite of Courage. Clothes Mr. Katz During his Mr. Katz disguise, he has a white shirt with black buttons on it, with a flower, he has a white tie and a light blue-ish shirt inside of it. Captain Katz This disguise is somewhat similar to the Mr. Katz one, he has a button shirt and a tie, the shirt remains white, but the buttons are this time yellow and instead of a white tie, he has a blue tie, his hat looks like a classic captain-hat, it is white on the biggest part of the hat, but also has blue and yellow colors. This one also doesn't have pocket. Aqua Katz This one is nearly identical to the regular one, the only differences is that he has a snorkel and a pack on him that he uses to swim. This and Captain Katz are in the same episode, Katz under the Sea. Ball of Revenge In this episode he has a rugby-football shirt and shorts, he uses spiky footballs to throw at Courage as a weapon. Attempts on killing Courage and Others This is a close-up look at Katz's attempts on killing important characters: Spiders In the first episode Katz appears in, A Night At The Katz Motel, Katz has a strict "No dogs allowed" policy, like usual. His plan here is to get Courage outside, and without Eustace and Muriel seeing, he will try to kidnap him and give him to his pet spiders, and after he has killed Courage, he will try to kill Muriel and Eustace. He mentions that "no one ever checks out of the Katz Motel", making it sound like nobody prior to Courage, Muriel, and Eustace left the motel alive and that he successfully killed all his previous victims. Staring Contest After Courage gives up, his eyes will be totally destroyed, making him very vulnerable, giving Katz a good chance at killing Courage. Candy Making He puts Courage through his candy-making machine, and makes him into a cylinder-shaped candy. His attempt at killing him fails, however, when he tries to force Eustace into the machine, too, and is instead defeated by the farmer (one of the few times Eustace knowingly and intentionally helps to defeat a villain) when he forces Katz into the machine instead, turning him into candy just like Courage. Transforming In Klub Katz, Katz transformed Eustace and Muriel into concrete objects, matching their personalities, Eustace became a wrecking ball, who has a very destructive and bullying attitude, while Muriel became a washing machine, matching her being very hard working and passionate personality. They are supposed to fight in a Colosseum, Katz absolutely loves this, fulfilling his sadistic needs. A funny thing is that Katz said when entering the spa that they were gonna feel like they were transformed, and he didn't lie, technically. Courage turns into a helicopter and flies away to save Muriel, Eustace breaks the Colosseum and nearly destroys Katz, it is unknown how Eustace managed to come home after this. Blowing Up the Submarine In Katz Under the Sea, he tries to explode the submarine, while he tries to kill Courage and Muriel, he also does this because he wants to sell his own submarines to become even wealthier, in the most part of the episode, he fails, but after a while, when Courage tries to stop him, he throws Courage at the machine, bouncing Courage on the switch, breaking the switch. Actually making Katz succeed, and apparently, there were more people on the submarine, so Katz gets other people he has no sort of connections with too with doing this, Courage drinks a lot of water, and then burps it up, exploding the submarine, and making the innocent people along with Courage and Muriel escape, Katz gets chased by a shark, the downfall of his goal, and somehow he manages to escape after it. This is probably his most sinister goal, as he doesn't only almost kill his rival Courage, but also a bunch of innocent people he doesn't even know. Spiky Balls In the final episode he is seen in, Ball of Revenge, his primary weapon is his spiky football, he throws it at Courage and is very successful with it, he has used this before, but that time he didn't do it to kill Courage, but more of an appetizer before his death, if you can call it that. This was much more dangerous, as he actually makes Courage faint. He is close to winning, until Courage deals the final blow, doing an extremely loud screech, ultimately defeating the villains. It is unknown what happened to Katz after this. Trivia * There is a fan theory that the reason the cartoon is so dark is that it is focused on how Courage sees the world, and how the world is structured in his mind, and Katz isn't one person, but symbolizes some strange humans that Courage meets. But this fan theory is somewhat debunked considering the directors stated themselves why it is so dark is because it is a parody on Gothic Horror. * Of all the episodes that Katz was in, Ball of Revenge is the only one that does not have his name in the title. Category:1990s